One breast, three arrows
she knows how to find bone
peel back phosphorous from night
& turn her body back into a home
fool's gold
she believes she won the war
Orion strung out over stars.

One heart, two arrows
nothing but dirt on her hands
from burying Orion, former lover
& stranger beside her
the scorpion in the sky
to remember makes venom
a bitter taste in her mouth.
She shouts; she barks like a dog
the moon comes out & so do the wolves
they surround with dirty paws
& dig up old bones
Artemis feeds them memories
language falls from her jaws like honey
she forget the world 'alone'

Empty bed, one arrow
Artemis runs with the river
leaving her followers behind
along with the breast they discarded
to be better archers
Artemis longs to be full
with the moonlight
but Apollo creeps in with the dawn
& won't ever let his sister go.

* * *

Evelyn Deshane has appeared in Plenitude Magazine, Strange Horizons, and Lackington's. Their chapbook, Mythology, was released in 2015 with The Steel Chisel. Evelyn (pron. Eve-a-lyn) received an MA from Trent University and currently studying for PhD at Waterloo University. Visit them at: evedeshane.wordpress.com

What do you think is the most important aspect of a fantasy poem?

I'm caught between saying immersion-- I want to know the world as well as possible and believe it fully enough to be immersed-- and speculation-- I want the poem to tell me something, or consider something, that I haven't considered before. Basically, when I read spec fic, I don't want to see the exact same world as it is now; I want to see something new and be enchanted by it.